QWE AI Academy What is Stable Diffusion?
Stable Diffusion is an open-source AI image generation model that you can run on your own computer. Unlike cloud-based services, running it locally gives you complete control, unlimited generations, and privacy for your creations.
System Requirements
You will need a computer with a dedicated GPU (NVIDIA recommended, at least 6GB VRAM), 16GB RAM minimum, and about 10GB of free disk space. AMD GPUs are supported but NVIDIA CUDA provides the best performance.
Installation with Automatic1111
The most popular way to run Stable Diffusion locally is through the Automatic1111 WebUI. It provides a user-friendly browser interface with all the features you need. Follow these steps to install on Windows or Mac.
Windows Installation
- Install Python 3.10.6 from python.org
- Install Git from git-scm.com
- Clone the Automatic1111 repository from GitHub
- Download a Stable Diffusion model (e.g., SD 1.5 or SDXL)
- Run the webui-user.bat file to start the interface
Generating Your First Image
Once the WebUI is running, open your browser to localhost:7860. Enter a prompt in the text field and click Generate. Start with simple prompts and gradually add detail. Use the negative prompt field to specify what you do not want in the image.
Key Settings
Understanding key settings will improve your results. Sampling steps (20-30 is usually good), CFG scale (7-12 for most prompts), and image dimensions affect quality and generation time. Experiment with different samplers like Euler a and DPM++ 2M Karras.